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AE 513 – IELTs Course: Lesson 3 – Hobbies

What’s up, guys! Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. Today is an IELTS lesson about hobbies. So, this is going to be broken into two parts. Kel and I are going to just have a discussion about our hobbies so, that you guys can hear and natural discussion in English, using different phrases, different vocab, everything like that. This will be up on the podcast and then there’ll be a second video and lesson where we will go through how to prepare for the speaking test. The questions you might get and then we’ll also break down different pieces of vocab and expressions that we suggest that you practice that you could use on these test for IELTS, Cambridge, PTE, whatever it might be, ok? So, let’s get into it. Kel, me about your hobbies. What do you do for fun? How do you enjoy your spare time?

Hmmm Let me think. That’s one thing you don’t want to do during your Speaking Test, hesitation, it’s not good. They’ll be like, you don’t know what you doing.

Come prepared.

Come prepared. Yeah.

You can make things up so, but I’ll tell the truth here. I’m really into photography. Cause I think and we’ve both, you know, drawn into. A little bit because of your Dad, I think, because your dad is a wild life photographer.

He just does photography in general.

Yeah, you know as a journalist I’m kind of in the same direction, but I do enjoy doing that it makes me go outside and keeps me fit and it’s fun and you go back home when you edit your photos. It’s such good fun.

It’s a bit like playing Pokémon.

Yeah.

Anyone who knows Pokémon the game it’s kind of like you go into a new area and you see all these new pokémon and you never know what you going to get, and photography is a bit like that too, where you’ll go out and you take all these photos, quite often you don’t see them in your home and then you’re like oh these ones are amazing, these ones are horrible, these ones awesome.

I think for you… you found something you really into very soon, like birds for example, or wildlife. And I’m still working on what my thing is, I like photographing animals, I like photographing people, street photography so, I’m not really into one single thing.

You’re not obsessed with one thing.

Yeah, I like doing bits and pieces of different things.

You like to dabble in a few different areas.

And then the gear stuff like you have to understand how your camera works and he is much better than me…

I think I’m just a bit more obsessed. It’s a very cerebral kind of a hobby where you have to learn all of these kind of complicated things if you want to get good at it, it’s not like… I run. That’s my hobby, my hobby is running, where is just left, right, left, right, left, right. Photography’s are a lot more gear oriented, you need to buy gear, you need to buy different lenses, you need to understand when they work, how they work. What to change with regards to techniques and features, it’s very good.

It’s unpredictable, right? Like in one day you might have, you know, the sun’s out and the light is perfect and your photos are great, but the next day it might be overcast and you have to change your settings and adapt to different conditions.

So, it is very variable. I think that’s part of the fun is that you just never know what you’re going to get.

Yes.

How long have you been into it? How long have you been into photography?

I did a little bit in Brazil as a journalist, but it was work related so, it wasn’t so, you know, as much fun as now because I was doing that for work, which was enjoyable but not I didn’t have as much freedom to play with the camera and to do different things. Just recently I’ve taken up this hobby for the last, what, three four months I would say.

May be longer than that.

Probably six months in Canberra.

Yeah in fact, Kel’s engagement ring, she’s got a wedding ring on her engagement ring was actually this camera because I was like, you know, I would prefer to buy you something that you can use that isn’t just a ring with that amount of money, right? Because engagement rings tend to be a lot more expensive than wedding rings and we bought the camera.

And we can both use it.

I can use Kel’s engagement ring.

It should go on the cultural differences, right? Cause here only the girl has the engagement ring, which is completely pointless.

Back in Brazil, what were your hobbies growing up? What did you used to do when you were a little kid in your spare time or to have fun?

That was my question, my IELTS question last time I did IELTS.

They used the set up, ‘what did you do as a kid for fun?’ Okay.

Yeah, exactly. I didn’t have many toys like, growing up. I would get presents for Christmas and you know kids break everything so, I would have to be really creative with my sister and one of our favourite hobbies was.

Breaking toys.

Not breaking toys, but like coming up with crazy plays, like she would be the mum, I would be the baby or we would be two, you know, friends visiting a different country it was really a imagination sort of…

You had to use your imagination.

Absolutely.

To have fun and go in this little adventure.

Yes. I liked playing outside with my friends on the street ,when I was allowed to, obviously, it wasn’t really something I would do very often. But that was fun, growing up like having friends on the street like, you know, the neighbours and we would go to their house and play with them. I had some like Barbies.

Actual Barbie dolls, not barbecues, Kel used to be obsessed with the hobby of having barbecues as a kid. Barbies, that doll Barbie.

I had some and we would play with them as well, it was fun. It’s…I think my childhood was very different from yours because I didn’t have the chance to learn how to swim or learn how to ride my bike or things like that. So, my hobbies were much more related to imagination and other kids and people and I would have to be creative and I think for you and you know for other people it might be swimming or you did piano as well, right?

Well, a lot of these activities more so than hobbies.

You didn’t enjoy it.

Where I was sort of forced. I remember the first day when I had to do piano lessons my mum gave me a note that I had to take to school and she said give this to a friend of hers who worked at the school as a piano teacher. I don’t even know and I gave this note to this lady and the lady’s like, oh sit down Pete you’re starting piano lessons, I was like I don’t want to start piano lessons.

So, we can say that hobbies are things you enjoy doing, right?

I would definitely say that.

So, if you’re forced to do it, it’s not a hobby.

It’s something that you enjoy doing, you spend time doing that thing.

Relaxes you.

Exactly. So for me, growing up there are many activities that I have to do, but I don’t think I would never have called the piano a hobby, I didn’t like it. I never called that swimming a hobby because I didn’t like it. You had to do it because you had to learn how to swim to be safe, but hobbies that I did have included things like skateboarding, I used to love doing, Surfing, I used to love doing, fishing. I used to love going fishing, you know, and doing that, but my dad used to hate fishing so I would always be me alone on the pier and he would just be there you know sort of like…

Because you don’t like fishing nowadays.

I don’t mind, but I know it’s not something I’m really into, I’m not really into fishing. I’d go if you were someone who came to me and said I have this fishing gear, I’ve got a boat, do you want to go fishing? I’d be like oh hell yeah, but I’m not going to go out of my way to lash out a lot of money on gear for fishing. It’s one of those things I could get into, but there are only so many hours in the day and I prefer doing at least at the moment photography, Aussie English, Aussie English is…It kind of, it started as a hobby, right? So Aussie English began as a hobby for me because I wasn’t getting paid for it. It was just something I did to help people and I enjoyed doing it. But that went from a hobby into a career or went from a hobby into a job. When I monetised, when I started making money from my hobby. So, that was that was a really, really good process I guess turning a hobby into a career.

And that’s a great thing like you end up doing something like gardening or whatever it is, and you find a way to make money out of the thing you enjoy the most. So, that’s great, absolutely great and unfortunately, I haven’t done it, I need to find a way to make money out of my hobbies. Yeah.

How do you make money from talking, Kel?

From reading.

What are you doing right now?

Yeah so, nowadays I would say my you know things I’m much more passionate about are reading, one because I’m pregnant and I’m trying to read as much as I can about pregnancy and education and child development and stuff.

So, would you call pregnancy a hobby.

No.

It’s not enjoyable!

It is enjoyable sometimes, but not enough for me to say it’s a hobby.

I’d be worried if he said the pregnancy is my hobby.

Imagine that?! Like every year.

That’s it, I do it every year.

I love reading, I love… learning how to swim is a very recent thing and I’m still like really dodgy, I’m a horrible swimmer, but I really enjoy being in the water, going to the swimming pool and like playing there and like making fun of myself.

For me I think it’ll be Photography has definitely become my primary hobby. The main hobby that I’m sort of obsessed with and into so, any time I have spare time, to the detriment of our spare time, Kel is quite often like Oh God, he’s watching videos again about photography or he’s editing video, or he’s editing photos. So, I do become a bit obsessive. I do like a lot, but I also say I guess I enjoy going to the gym at the moment, that’s my other hobby. Watching documentaries, I guess that’s a hobby, I do that with Kel quite a bit, we like to watch documentaries.

Going to the movies is a hobby, I love that, you don’t really like that, so…

Not as into it, I don’t like people eating popcorn in a big room.

Like if I had to explain that if I was actually doing IELTS today and I had to explain why going to the movies is so enjoyable for me I would say it’s a whole different thing, like you is a social thing, right? You leave your house, you go out. You might have someone else with you or you might do it by yourself, but the whole experience is what is enjoyable like have this big screen in front of you, and popcorn of course, so the whole thing is different from watching a movie in your house. Sometimes I just want to do that, bit like going out and seeing people, just like being outside…

It’s the atmosphere.

Yes, exactly.

So, do you have any friends or family with weird hobbies or anything you’d never do?

My mum’s a bit obsessed with reading, to a point that she and I don’t know if your mum is like that as well…

I think she probably is. You mean with like novels.

No nonfiction, but fiction. So, it’s like all these stories and everything. And romance novels?

Romance novels, it’s just gross.

My mom has a library of romance novels.

My mum has a library too. The thing is, it takes so much space. I love books. I want to have a library in my house. But then when you can’t move in the house, that when I think it gets complicated because…

It goes from a hobby to an obsession.

I think my mom is a different level.

She’s addicted to collecting books. When do you ever read them too? That’s what I always said to my mom I’m like you’ve got all these books, but do you ever read them twice or do you just buy one and put it on the shelf after you’ve read it and that’s it?

Absolutely, I don’t know. I love reading, but I think I’m much more willing to give away the books I’ve already read, as gifts to friends or you know, I don’t like…. I like collecting things, but not to the point where my life is completely taken over by this hobby.

It’s an easy thing to fall into, especially because I think human nature is kind of like we need to collect resources. And so you have to try to avoid that and I always feel that with like photography gear, for example, oh what’s the next thing that I can get, Kel is always like no… no.

Yeah. Because you have to set a limit, when you’re doing something and you’re buying things because you need them or you just want to have the, you know, the latest sort of camera or whatever, because the cameras work absolutely fine and you’re doing so much with them and unless you do you have the need to have a different camera or different lens or whatever it is, I don’t see the point, but I’m stingy, so…

Kel doesn’t like spending much money.

Yeah, I mean.. I do… but yeah, you’re right.

So, are there any hobbies that you could never imagine yourself doing?

Dangerous stuff like surfing. I don’t know how to swim, so one day when I finally learn, I might be brave enough to go in the water and surf, but that’s for me, that’s a bit scary.

I think for me it would be more the boring things, my mom is obsessed with collecting stamps. I think would, I could never imagine myself doing that. I used to do it when I was a little kid. I think for like a few months and then I was like I’m over this. I’m over it, I’m not interested, I want something else, I want a skateboard, no stamps.

You asked before about weird hobbies and stuff, I really like fishing. It’s not something I do all the time and it has been ages since I last went fishing, but I absolutely love it. I can spend a whole day, you know, in a boat, just there relaxing waiting for the fish to come. I love it. I think I get the same feeling you get from photography.

Because you never know what you’re going to get.

It’s strategic, right? Like you’re there, you have to know what to do, and a lot of people think you don’t do anything, but actually there’s a lot of thinking behind fishing.

I thought you just put the bait on the hook. You just cast the line out get a beer, and that’s it.

You have to understand like the tide and just everything, it’s just really, really nice and something I’ve been trying to do a lot recently and I’m into it, but I’m not as good as I wanted it to be cooking. So, I think is a bit like chemistry, right? Like you have this step by step whatever recipe and you need to make it to something, you know, tasty and people will enjoy it and I love it.

You’ve got to use all these ingredients, two parts this, one part this, mix here.

And I usually mess up. My last attempts were not so successful, But I’m getting there, it is really enjoyable. I recommend it for people who want to take up new hobbies.

Brilliant, awesome. Alright, guys! So that’s it for the conversation stuff. Hopefully you guys learnt a whole bunch of vocab and expressions and you could see how we were using them in a natural kind of conversation and so, if and when you have these exams in the future you’ll have a lot of different content here that you can use when having those kinds of conversations. Now we’re going to move on to the second video so, remember if you want access to that for all the other lessons that are going to be in this course go to theaussieenglishclassroom.com enroll and you’ll get access to all the other content that comes after these discussion videos. See you there!

So, as a whole though, the expression “to cost an arm and a leg”, as a whole expression, the phrase “cost an arm and a leg” is used to describe anything that is considered to be extremely expensive or excessively pricey, that is to cost more than it really should.

And so, if a person thinks the cost of something is unreasonably high they may use this common idiom to describe the price of this thing or the cost of this thing.

So if I thought today that that burger at Hot Poppy was ridiculously expensive, if I thought it was unreasonably high in price, excessively costly, excessively pricey, I could say, “Jesus! This burger costs an arm and a leg.”

So, you can also sort of express this idea by using any synonym for “a lot”, “a lot”.

But you can say things like, “it costs a lot”, “it costs a ton”, “it costs a heap”, “it costs a shit load”, “it costs a bucket load”, or “it costs and arm and a leg”.

So there are many many many many many ways to say that “it costs a lot”.

You just have to say “it costs” and then one of these different ways of expressing “many”, “much”, “a lot”.

So, as usual, let’s go through the origin, guys, the origin of this expression.

I looked this up, and the origin of this expression wasn’t really very clear.

There were a few guesses as to where it could have come from in the past.

And so, one theory is that the saying or the expression originated in the early 20th century.

So, in the 1900s during the First World War or the Second World War.

And so the idea being that soldiers, because of their heavy involvement in a war, because they were heavily involved with war and because they were always in the firing line, so in the line of fire, sometimes these soldiers unfortunately lost a hand, a foot, a leg or an arm.

And thus, war could literally cost a person there or leg, which is a very high price to pay.

So going to war, you could say figuratively “it costs an arm and a leg” in that it costs a lot of money.

And then, you could say, literally war “costs an arm and a leg” if someone gets injured and literally has lost an arm or a leg.

Another theory is that the phrase may simply derive from an older expression or from older expressions that also use legs and arms as ways to describe high cost.

And so there is another expression that we use in English, which is to give your right arm for something or you could say to give your left arm for something, and sometimes it can be quite vulgarly used.

It can be quite inappropriately used for men who might say they would give their left nut for something.

So, I wouldn’t use that but I felt like mentioning it because it’s funny.

And when they say “nut”, “nut” is a slang term for testicle.

So sometimes vulgar men will use this kind of comment to talk about a woman that they would like or something incredibly expensive that they would like.

And so the expression I would give my right arm for something, this dates back even earlier.

So this dates back to a time in the 18th century so the 1700s.

Whereas the earliest recording for something to cost an arm and a leg dates to 1951.

So, the middle of the 20th century post World War 2.

So, as usual guys, we’ll go through some examples, although we’ve already gone through a couple there.

Examples:

1.

So, I imagine number one, that you are trying to buy a house in Australia.

So, this is something I’m currently faced with as someone who is in the first part of their life, doesn’t own a house yet, housing prices in Australia in Sydney and then Melbourne in particular as well are insanely high.

They’re ridiculously high. For instance, pretty much any house within 30 minutes of the Melbourne CBD is going to cost $600,000 dollars or more to buy.

It’s going to be above half a million dollars and so there’s the big housing crisis in Australia for young people who are trying to buy their first home and they can’t afford it because of the ridiculous house prices.

And so, you could say that “buying a house in Australia costs an arm and a leg”.

“It costs an arm and a leg to buy a house in Melbourne”.

“It costs an arm and a leg to buy a house in Sydney”.

“It’s gonna cost us an arm and a leg to buy our first house”.

“Houses cost an arm and a leg.

2.

Example number two. Imagine that you are sending your kid to a private school in Australia.

So, I went to a private school in Geelong called Geelong college, and it was a pretty nice school.

It was a little pretentious for my liking where they were a little bit snobby and up themselves, especially the rich kids that went there.

So, my family wasn’t rich by any stretch of the imagination, but Geelong College was the best option my parents decided for a high school to send me to in that area.

And so, they sent me there. My parents decided that they wanted to send me to Geelong College, but it came at a high price.

And so, in Australia we have public schools, which are only funded by the government, and these tend to be the schools that most people go to, because there are a lot more affordable.

And then we have private schools, which are funded primarily by fees that people pay to send their children there, but they also receive money from the government.

And so, there’s quite a bit of an argument between how much money they should receive from the government compared to public schools etc. that goes on in Australian life and Australian media quite a bit.

And so, these schools can actually cost upwards of $20,000/year. When I was a teenager.

So, they’re ridiculously expensive. It’s probably even more nowadays.

So, I could say that, “it cost my parents an arm and a leg to send me to private school”.

“It costs my parents an arm and a leg to send me to Geelong college, to that private school.”

“Going to a private school costs an arm and a leg”, and I could say that “private school fees cost an arm and a leg in Australia”, and probably anywhere in the world I think.

3.

So, number three imagine that you have a court case. So, you’re going to court.

You’ve been working on a work site. So, this is where tradesmen go to work.

And the safety there is really bad. The safety standards are really poor.

The company that is organising the work that’s done there, that owns the job is really dodgy.

They’re really sketchy meaning that they are untrustworthy, they cut corners, they bend the rules in order to try and save money with regards to the cost, in order to try and save money at the cost of your safety.

And maybe they’re trying to get things done as quickly as possible. So you end up getting injured somehow.

Maybe you fall from some scaffolding because there wasn’t a protective barrier there to keep you and other workers safe.

And so, your boss and company should have had the right safety precautions in place so that this incident wouldn’t have happened.

And so, because this happened it was reported to Workplace Health and Safety, and this is the organisation that represents people who are injured at work, and they make sure that companies have a safe work environment for their employees.

So, you and the Workplace Health and Safety end up taking this dodgy company, this sketchy company to court.

You want to sue them. So you want to take them to court and say they need to pay a certain amount of money.

And maybe it is an incredibly large amount of money. So you want to sue them for a $1,000,000.

And imagine that if you win you could say that, “because this dodgy company didn’t care about safety its workers went and sued the company and it cost the company an arm and a leg”.

So, “being sued cost the company an arm and a leg”.

And if the injury had been so severe that you actually lost an arm or a leg then you could say that, “working for this dodgy company, working for this sketchy company, this untrustworthy company cost me an arm and a leg literally. But then I sued them for a million dollars and it cost them an arm and a leg figuratively.”

So, hopefully you get the expression “to cost someone or to cost something and arm and a leg” now guys.

Hopefully, there’s a lot of good examples in this episode, and as usual, let’s go through a little listen and repeat exercise.

So, listen and repeat after me guys. Practice your pronunciation.

If you’re trying to practice your Australian accent then say things exactly as I say them.

Let’s go.

Listen & Repeat:

To cost.
To cost.
To cost an arm.
To cost an arm.
To cost an arm and a leg.
To cost an arm and a leg.
To cost an arm and a leg.
To cost an arm and a leg.

It costs an arm and a leg.
That costs and I mean a leg.
This costs an arm and a leg.
These cost an arm and a leg.
Those cost an arm and a leg.

And I’m just going to quickly go through those last five sentences guys and I want you to pay attention to the word “and”, the word “and” between an arm and a leg.

Listen & Repeat:

It costs an arm and a leg.
That costs an arm and a leg.
This costs an arm and a leg.
These cost an arm and a leg.
Those cost an arm and a leg.

So, the reason I wanted you to focus on the word “and” is because quite often this word really gets reduced down to just an ‘n’ sound, an ‘n’ sound.

So, not only does the D at the end of “and” sort of disappear, and it becomes “an’ a leg”, but also the A at the start can disappear where it will become “arm ‘n’ a leg”, “arm ‘n’ a leg”, “arm ‘n’ a leg”.

And it just becomes a lot more fluid, a lot more easier for natives to speak incredibly quickly.

And so we’re going to be focussing on practicing this sound of how “and” is contracted in this episode of Aussie English.

We’re going to do it in the Aussie English Supporter Pack.

There’s going to be exercises for you guys to practice how to pronounce the word “and” like a native, but for everyone who’s just listening now let’s go over these four sentences, and I’ll say them at native speed for you to listen and practice your pronunciation quickly.

Listen & Repeat:

Him and I.
Him and I.
The cat and the dog.
The cat and the dog.
Houses and buildings.
Houses and buildings.
Australia and New Zealand.
Australia and New Zealand.

So that’s it for this episode guys.

I hope you enjoy it, and remember, if you want bonus exercises to increase the speed of your learning of Aussie English definitely check out the Aussie English Supporter pack.

It’s $1 to try it for a month and you’ll get a heap of bonus exercises.

This episode today, we’re going to have the vocab table and glossary going over or the difficult vocab.

We’re going to have listening comprehension questions for this episode.

We’re going to have substitution exercises focussing on the phrasal verbs “to end up” and “to wind up”.

And then, we’re also going to have slang that we went over in this episode.

A pronunciation and connected speech exercise targeting the word “and”.

And then, we’re going to be practicing the past tense in the grammar exercise.

Related

In today’s episode I teach you how to contract “Had not have” into the forms “Hadn’t have”, “Hadn’t’ve” and “Hadn’ah”.

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Pronunciation: Had not have = Hadn’t have – Hadn’t’ve – Hadn’ah

G’day guys. Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. Today is another pronunciation episode, and the focus for today’s episode is going to be “Had not have” and how to contract this. So, like many of the others there’s three or so different contracted forms. You’ll have the full form “Had not have” and then you’ll have “Hadn’t have”, “Hadn’t’ve” and “hadn’ah”. So, “Had not have”, “Hadn’t have”, “Hadn’t’ve” and “Hadn’ah”. So, you’re often going to find this in the form of “Had not have + a past participle” of another verb. So, “Hadn’t’ve + been”, “Hadn’t’ve done”, “Hadn’t’ve gone”, “Hadn’t’ve asked”, “Hadn’t have + played”, etc. and you’re going to find this most often in clauses where you… it’s the “If I did something, I wouldn’t have done this”, or “If I hadn’t done something this, I wouldn’t have done this”. It’s going to be that kind of clause. So for example you could say, “If I hadn’t’ve studied, I wouldn’t’ve passed the exam”. That kind of thing. I think that’s where you’re going to hear this more often than not.

Note: “Hadn’t have” is the acceptable contraction to write formally, whereas “Hadn’t’ve” may be written informally. The form “Hadn’ah” has just been written this way to show you phonetically how I pronounce things when speaking.

So, let’s just get straight into the pronunciation exercises guys. I’m going to contract this through the different pronouns in English, but this time I’m going to start each of these sentences with “If”, and yeah, let’s get into it.

If I had not have…

If I hadn’t have…

If I hadn’t’ve…

If I hadn’ah…

If you had not have…

If you hadn’t have…

If you hadn’t’ve…

If you hadn’ah…

If he had not have…

If he hadn’t have…

If he hadn’t’ve…

If he hadn’ah…

If she had not have…

If she hadn’t have…

If she hadn’t’ve…

If she hadn’ah…

If we had not have…

If we hadn’t have…

If we hadn’t’ve…

If we hadn’ah…

If they had not have…

If they hadn’t have…

If they hadn’t’ve…

If they hadn’ah…

And as a bonus I’ll do “It” and “Things”.

If it had not have…

If it hadn’t have…

If it hadn’t’ve…

If it hadn’ah…

If things had not have…

If things hadn’t have…

If things hadn’t’ve…

If things hadn’ah…

So, I hope those pronunciation exercises help guys. As I’ve said previously, just keep doing them until you get a really good sense of how to say these things. It’ll sound a lot more natural if you use any of these contracted forms as opposed to saying “Had not have” like that. That’ll sound very bizarre to people because it’s not often said uncontracted like that. So, keep practicing these pronunciation exercises guys. Don’t worry too much about having to remember every single form, to remember when to use them, it’s more just an exercise for your mouth, for the muscles in your mouth, so that you get used to using these different contracted forms and then when you want to say them in sentences it should just come out as you want them to, and probably contracted so that it’s more natural.

So, we’ll go into some substitution exercises guys, and this is the point where I will say a sentence and I’ll use the first contracted form in this case. So, I will say “Hadn’t have” and I want you to contract that sentence into “Hadn’t’ve”, “Hadn’t’ve”. So, I’m going to say, for example, “If I hadn’t have…” and I want you to say, “If I hadn’t’ve…”. I might also add here too that I’m going to put in “Would have” and I want you guys to try and contract this as well. So, this is sort of for bonus points. If you don’t it’s all good. You’ll listen a few times I’m sure and get the hang of it. You’ll get used to it. But it’s just to sort of up the ante, to up the level a bit and make it a little bit more difficult, but yeah… Listen and repeat after me guys.

Substitution exercises: Hadn’t have – hadn’t’ve

If you hadn’t have gone, you would have missed out.

If you hadn’t’ve gone, you would’ve missed out.

If she hadn’t have stayed, she would have regretted it.

If she hadn’t’ve stayed, she would’ve regretted it.

If it hadn’t have been so cold, I would have gone outside.

If it hadn’t’ve been so cold, I would’ve gone outside.

If he hadn’t have asked, he wouldn’t have found out why.

If he hadn’t’ve asked, he wouldn’t’ve found out why.

If they hadn’t have played the game, they wouldn’t have lost.

If they hadn’t’ve played the game, they wouldn’t’ve lost.

If I hadn’t have been up so late last night, I would have come.

If I hadn’t’ve been up so late last night, I would’ve come.

If things hadn’t have gotten this bad, it would have been easier.

If things hadn’t’ve gotten this bad, it would’ve been easier.

If we hadn’t have watched the movie, we wouldn’t have known the ending.

If we hadn’t’ve watched the movie, we wouldn’t’ve known the ending.

So, the reason that I’ve added in “Would not have” or “Would have” in these sentences in the substitution exercise to follow guys is because “Had not have” is going to be used in that form, that clause form of “If you hadn’t have… you would have…” etc. So you’re going to have that, “If you hadn’t have…” and then it’s going to be followed by “Wouldn’t have” or “Would have” after it. So, let’s do the next substitution exercise guys where this time I will say the first sentence in the contracted form “Hadn’t’ve” and I want you to say “Hadn’ah”. So, I’m going to say, “Hadn’t’ve” and I want you to say, “Hadn’ah”.

Substitution exercises: Hadn’t’ve – hadn’ah

If you hadn’t’ve gone, you would’ve missed out.

If you hadn’ah gone, you would’ah missed out.

If she hadn’t’ve stayed, she would’ve regretted it.

If she hadn’ah stayed, she would’ah regretted it.

If it hadn’t’ve been so cold, I would’ve gone outside.

If it hadn’ah been so cold, I would’ah gone outside.

If he hadn’t’ve asked, he wouldn’t’ve found out why.

If he hadn’ah asked, he wouldn’ah found out why.

If they hadn’t’ve played the game, they wouldn’t’ve lost.

If they hadn’ah played the game, they wouldn’ah lost.

If I hadn’t’ve been up so late last night, I would’ve come.

If I hadn’ah been up so late last night, I would’ah come.

If things hadn’t’ve gotten this bad, it would’ve been easier.

If things hadn’ah gotten this bad, it would’ah been easier.

If we hadn’t’ve watched the movie, we wouldn’t’ve known the ending.

If we hadn’ah watched the movie, we wouldn’ah known the ending.

So, just as a side note guys, going through these different contracted form as I was doing this exercise, it kind of gets difficult for me because I think that my brain is really really used to using the most contracted form “Hadn’ah”, “Wouldn’ah”. And so, it’s actually funny how difficult it is for me. I have to really really really concentrate to use the other contracted forms of “Hadn’t’ve” and “Had not have” and “Hadn’t have” when reading these out because, yeah, the most natural way for me to say it is “Hadn’ah”. So, that’s just as a side note. If you guys want to practice these, practice them. Try using them. See how people react when you use them. I’m sure you’ll be surprised at how much people understand what you’re saying even though you’ve contracted a lot of these words down to almost be unrecognisable when they’re written on a page, at least with regards to the part of the word that you say when you speak.

So, anyway. I’m rambling. This is the episode for today guys. I hope it’s helped. I know it was a little bit more difficult because they were in the clause form so you were contracting both “Had not have” and “Would have” or “Would not have” in these. Listen multiple times. You’re not going to necessarily get it perfect the first time. It’s the kind of thing you should just keep repeating. Don’t try and remember everything. Don’t try and remember anything really. Just practice this stuff and eventually you will notice that you will say it naturally without having to think. So, until next time guys, keep at it, keep working hard and I’ll chat to you soon. See you later.

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